ROME - Irate FAO staff staged a protest strike over threatened job cuts this week and management said salaries will be cut in reprisal, union sources said Friday.

"The last three days in FAO is an absolute havoc," one source told Insider, "all short term staff ( Taps and Professionals) are about to be terminated in few weeks. We went on strike and we were reprimanded after which a memo was issued that our salaries will be reduced as penalty."

Assistant Director General Dennis "hatchet man" Aitken issued a curt statement saying salaries would be docked in response -- a draconian measure that caused widespread outrage for its high-handed style.

An FAO staffer commented on the lack of harmony as Director General Jose Graziano da SIlva prepares to fight for re-election to the head of the UN agency as the only candidate.

"This is becoming a brazilian favela with a communist / marxist leader who cares only on the votes he gets," said the staffer, "In any case he is the only candidate and we are not slaves of a Brazilian ghetto who can be given a dollar a day and a few bananas and be happy. Since when in 2015 in democratic and European countries staff are penalized and cut off salaries for defending their rights?"